Reality shows are the new youth potion of TV networks,
but quizzes, dramas and newsmagazines continue to be tonic for the aging. As
the TV business continues to seek young viewers coveted by advertisers, a detailed
new study from ad research firm Magna Global USA charts the aging of prime-time
viewers and its impact on the networks.

CBS' Survivor and ABC's The Mole attracted
their networks' youngest audiences, fueling efforts to expand the reality genre
with more new series.

An emphasis on dramas, from The West Wing and Providence
to Law & Order, has aged NBC's audience profile, while ABC's devotion
to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire has done the same.

Summer audiences are both smaller and older, as the youngest
viewers tend to abandon TV in greater numbers. Only NBC, fueled by Fear Factor
and Spy TV, is averaging a younger viewer base than it did during the
regular season.

CBS' median age last season was 51.2  meaning half
its viewers are older and half younger  compared with 46.6 for ABC and
45.1 for NBC.

"The median ages of the Big 3 networks are closer than
ever," says media analyst Steve Sternberg, the study's author. Those networks
are more competitive with one another for the same kinds of viewers. That, says
Sternberg, "could be a key factor in audience gains among Fox and WB," because
those networks target younger viewers and have less direct competition for them.

Survivor was by far CBS' youngest show in the regular
season, and its audience also is younger than the network's Big Brother this
summer. Expect to see more young viewers attracted this fall as newcomers like
The Amazing Race replace older-skewing movies or dramas.

Overall, TV's youngest show last season was WB's canceled
Popular, with a median age of just 22. The show with the oldest audience?
As in past years, CBS' Diagnosis Murder, with a median age of 57.7. Since
Diagnosis also is history, second-place 60 Minutes is likely to
take its spot this season.

CBS, which leads among 50-plus viewers but ranks fourth
among those 34 and under, has its greatest pocket of youth with Monday comedies.
Bucking normal viewing patterns, where viewers age with the shows they watch,
Everybody Loves Raymond and The King of Queens had their most
youthful audiences yet last season.